


The Phoenix and the Lion [+Podfic]

by xinasvoice



Series: Poly Marauders Fairytales [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, BDSM, BDSM community, Breathplay, F/M, KINKS:, Kink Community, M/M, Misc Tags:, Multi, POC James, Podfic, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 2-2.5 Hours, Pole Dancing, Polyamory, Power Exchange, Public sex kinda, Sex Clubs, Sex Work, Sleepy Sex, Themes:, WARNINGS:, a jily story from Sirius' perspective, consent that isn't explicit, control vs letting go, established relationship starbuck, exhausted sex, het relationships that aren't boring, letting strippers step on you, like a lot of it, nongraphic mentions of human trafficking, relationship anarchy, strippers as Real People
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:00:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23613406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xinasvoice/pseuds/xinasvoice
Summary: It’s not every day you get to help your husband woo the woman of his dreams.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/James Potter
Series: Poly Marauders Fairytales [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1420120
Comments: 16
Kudos: 40





	1. Smitten

**Author's Note:**

  * For [undefinedkosmos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/undefinedkosmos/gifts).



> Podfic duration: 2hr 13min  
> [.m4a audio file](https://soundcloud.com/user-824292289/the-phoenix-and-the-lion) ~ [.m4b audiobook file](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tuPNFu0FtAgieHT9jLZxhnQRc5DARg85/view?usp=sharing)
> 
> Ending music is [God Save Our Young Blood](https://music.apple.com/us/album/god-save-our-young-blood/1440875185?i=1440875189) by BØRNS & Lana Del Rey  
> Thank you to Beta Reader, She Who Has Impatiently Waited Many a Day, [ForeverShippingJohnlock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForeverShippingJohnlock/works)
> 
> Pole dancer inspiration: Amy Hazel. [Watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BocZxLGxPiE) her [stuff](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFz9vlCwPA8) if you want to get an awesome visual for what's [happening.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDusBJRojls)
> 
> Gifted to undefinekosmos and all the other soft polyam souls who left lovely comments on the other work in this series. <3  
> Also a HUGE thank you to my wife, J, and my partner, M, for modeling for the cover art for me. You two are the best. 
> 
> [Follow me on tumblr ](xinasvoice.tumblr.com)

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/158228914@N03/49765019311/in/dateposted-public/)

It was dark, dingy, and sticky, even for a strip club. Fortunately, Sirius had both a pile of money that he was deeply ashamed of and an energetic husband that he had never once been ashamed of, so he had some faith. With that combination, he could fix up anything, even a shitty club that said husband had purchased on a whim three weeks ago. Of course, fixing the club up in a physical sense was the easy part. It was the rest he was worried about.

Sirius was taking apart the sagging booth seating around the edge of the room so he could get to the bolts that held it down (so he could take it to the dump, never to be cringed at again) when that same husband burst in through the back door.

“Sirius!” James’ voice echoed through the large, empty space. He crossed the room in less time than it took for Sirius to put down the socket wrench that he was quickly forming an antagonistic relationship with and crashed into Sirius’ side.

Sirius laughed and hugged him back, happy for the distraction. “Hey, babe. I thought I was meeting you at home.”

“I had to see you right away!” James squeezed Sirius hard around the ribs. “You remember today was my first pole class, right?”

His eyes were shining, and he looked positively radiant. He was wearing a black tank top and—for no practical reason that Sirius could think of, except perhaps decoration—a sports bra. The bright pink underlayer did match the detailing on his capri-length yoga pants, and the color contrasted beautifully with his dark brown skin. 

“Hard to forget, seeing as you’re holding those.” Sirius nudged the clear shoulder bag that held James’ black platform shoes. The shoes had arrived only two days ago, and Sirius had spent most of yesterday admiring the way James looked in them…from _every_ possible angle.

“Right.” James let the bag drop to the floor with a clunk. “And remember how I said the instructor’s website was really well done and had all those super hot videos of her routines?”

“The one who used to be in the circus,” Sirius said with a smile. He could already see where this was going.

“Yes!” James jumped a little in place. “Isn’t that amazing? Who is actually in the circus, in real life? Only _goddesses!”_

Sirius poked him teasingly in the side. “And clowns, and mimes. And that lady who sings the operatic bits, and—”

“ _Anyways,_ ” James continued, talking over him. “Her name is Lily and she is so much hotter in person. She’s so beautiful I could hardly _look_ at her.” He gripped Sirius’ arms tightly in both hands for emphasis. “It was like looking at the _sun_. And she’s so strong, and she’s such a good teacher, and I swear to God, Sirius, if she is the sun, I am a candle, because she made me _melt.”_ He let go of Sirius’ shoulders partway through this little speech to demonstrate the melting by swooning down onto the booth seat. His long braids thudded against the leather with the force of his fall, and the upholstery expelled a cloud of dust.

Sirius laughed and leaned down to pick up James’ artfully dangling hand to plant a kiss on his palm before sitting down next to James’ head with a flop. “Bet she’s a dom,” he said, arranging James’ hair over his lap. “It’s only the doms that get you like this.”

“She is!” James sat up with as much drama as he had swooned down—not a feat that the average person could manage—and dug around in his bag. “After class—which was super fun, by the way—I asked her out, because I couldn’t _not_ do that, and she just gave me this look like she could see all the way to the inside of my _soul_ , and she gave me this!”

He handed Sirius a dark red business card. On the front was a rather suggestive-looking flower, and the back said, simply, _Professional Domination_ and a web address.

“Wow. That’s lucky. You going to set up a session?”

“No way!” James gasped indignantly and snatched the card back. “I don’t want to be her client! She’s way too interesting for just that. She’s a _goddess_ , Sirius. I want to _marry_ her!”

“Uh huh.” Sirius pulled James in under his arm. “So have you proposed yet?”

“No.” James’ tone implied that he had actually considered this. “But I told her— _very_ politely—that if she was open to it, I would love to go on a date sometime, and I explained about you, and I was about to launch into the whole polyamory explanation, but I didn’t even have to! She’s poly too, and she’s just like us, Sirius! No primaries or secondaries or bullshit rules.” He sighed in a gushy way and swung his legs over Sirius’ lap, cuddling in. “It’s, like, destiny! Only she’s gotten burned before by people who don’t know how poly is supposed to work, so she wouldn’t give me her number. But!” He raised his hand as if to reassure Sirius (or himself) that all was not lost. “She asked me for _your_ number.”

“Ah.” Sirius nodded. “She wants to meet up?”

It wasn’t something they had done very often, simply because it was hard for them both to keep up with all the people they dated or slept with. They tried to cultivate friendly relations with each other’s long-term people, but there were only so many days in a week, and calendaring with people whose partners had partners was complicated. Sirius wasn’t against a screening date though, especially not considering how smitten James seemed to be. Normally, Sirius would have bet good money on James just setting up a handful of dom sessions and then moving on. They both slept around a lot, but it wasn’t as often that one of them ran into someone he wanted to date in a serious way. Lily must have really gotten to him.

“Will you?” James turned to give Sirius his best pleading look, which was entirely unnecessary but pleasant to look at anyways.

“Of course, love,” Sirius said, and smiled when James burst into excited squealing, wiggling on the seat enough to make whole torrents of dust explode into the air.

+++

_hi is this James’ husband?_

Yep. I’m Sirius. This is Lily, right? James told me about you. He had a lot to say lol

_that doesn’t surprise me. Can I meet with you?_

Of course. Are you free tomorrow for lunch? He’s awfully antsy. It’s adorable.

_Yes. Let’s meet at Ground at noon._


	2. Set Up

Ground, the local kink-friendly coffee shop, was one of Sirius’ regular haunts. The redhead in front of him who gave the menu only a cursory glance before ordering seemed to be familiar with the place too, but Sirius was sure he had never run into her there before. He would have remembered someone like this.

It wasn’t just her cloud of curly red hair that set her apart. She was also unusually short, enough that Sirius towered over her in an embarrassing way, and her bare arms were just as toned as his own, which was really saying something considering his obsession with the gym down the street.

He stopped feeling like he was looming over her as soon as she turned around, however. Her bright green eyes were arresting, and she carried herself with effortless confidence. Everything about her said this was a woman who meant business everywhere she went. It wasn’t hard to see why James had already fallen for her so hard. She was exactly his type.

“You must be Lily,” Sirius said, taking it upon himself to do the introduction, as she had no way of recognizing him. “I’m Sirius.”

“I want to make one thing completely clear,” she said after an efficient greeting and truly impressive handshake. Her voice was unexpectedly warm, but her expression was not quite friendly. “I don’t date couples, as in you-and-James. I date individuals, as in, James.”

Sirius nodded. “Don’t worry, we aren’t looking for a unicorn. This is all James. I’m gay, anyways.”

“Oh. Okay.” She softened up a bit, smiling. “Let’s talk then.”

Sirius placed his order and then joined her at the table in the back, next to the towering stack of board games that the café kept on hand.

“Sorry about all this,” she said once he had settled in. “One of my recent partners dated me for six months before I found out her husband didn’t know. I’ve gotten cautious.”

“It’s fine, I understand,” Sirius said. “They have good sandwiches here anyways.”

She smiled again. “They do.”

Their sandwiches arrived quickly and they spent a few minutes bonding over food preferences. Then the conversation drifted to their careers.

“I’ve done a lot of nothing,” Sirius admitted. “But lately…did James tell you about the club?” When she shook her head, Sirius continued, “It used to be called Spread.”

Lily made a face. “Ugh. I’ve heard of that place. I heard it was kind of a shithole. Shaky poles, lazy bouncers, not very safe. I wouldn’t dance there.”

“You didn’t hear wrong. But it’s under new management. Us.” Sirius took a drink of his coffee to hide his overly-excited smile. He and James had gone to the club as customers a month or so ago. Sirius had not been impressed. James had been angry. While Sirius had been refilling their drinks, James had weaseled his way into the back office and badgered the manager until he agreed to sell.

“You mean you and James? You own it now?” Lily asked, eyes widening.

“Yep. As of three weeks ago. We’ve closed it for renovations. You wouldn’t _believe_ how gross it is in there. We’re fixing it up to be a proper dungeon, but with a focus on queers, kinksters, and other alternative folks, instead of the straight-creeper-dude hideaway it used to be. James is redoing the website, and I’m going to be the bouncer. Well, one of them.”

“That’s so cool!” Lily smiled, eyes sparkling. She really did have a sweet smile. It reminded Sirius of a toned-down version of James’ own. “There hasn't been anywhere good since HighLow closed, and that was before my time.”

‘“Yeah.” Sirius let himself smile too, feeling a bit like a new father must feel—both excited and absolutely terrified. 

If the club was his and James’ baby, it had definitely been an unplanned pregnancy. In fact, when James had first told him what he had done, Sirius had completely panicked. It wasn’t just the sudden responsibility of owning a small business that was currently averaging 1.5 star reviews and had so many layers of grime on the walls that the floor-to-ceiling view had a distinct ombre. What had really freaked him out was the publicness of it all.

Sirius was the eldest son of some very dangerous people, people who would definitely not be okay with him being gay at all, let alone involved with a kinky sex club. They didn’t even know about James. It had given Sirius a strange sensation to sign their marriage certificate with his government-approved alias, but he would never put James in danger by marrying him with his actual family name, which said family could look up at any time. As far as the county office and most of London was concerned, Sirius was Sirius Black, a name chosen by himself half for vanity and half for anonymity. So far it had done a good job of hiding him from his family, and every Sunday he warded off their suspicion by going to their estate in the county to be Alec Lee again for the benefit of his parents and extended family, who all holed up out there like vipers in an exquisitely marbled nest.

Sirius’ family didn’t know about James, they didn’t know Sirius was gay, and they definitely didn’t know he was polyamorous or into kink up to his eyeballs. Owning a sex club didn’t seem at all conducive to the kind of secrecy Sirius needed to keep his little life safe. It had taken hours of James’ reassurances to calm him down. Sirius wasn’t on the paperwork at all. They could use pseudonyms at the club, adding another layer of protection, and it wasn’t like there was a lot of crossover between the Lee family’s social circles and the people who would be visiting the club. Unlike Sirius’ family, the club would be entirely legal and morally sound.

Once Sirius’ panic had subsided and he had started to actually think about it, he realized what an amazing opportunity this was. The London kink scene was full of shit, and the poly scene wasn’t much better. People used kink or poly as excuses to cheat, violate the boundaries of consent, manipulate their partners, and, in general, to get away with terrible behavior. Of course, most people weren’t like that, but it only took a couple of bad apples to rip apart a healthy community. Right now, there wasn’t even anywhere Sirius and James (and their many friends and sometimes-lovers) could go where they could be themselves, somewhere structured, safe, and _fun_. The new club—The Marauders, they would call it—was going to become that place.

“We’re going to have different events each week…kink nights, classes, community mixers and roundtables, queer-only sex parties, things like that,” Sirius continued. “And we’re getting a new pole installed, of course. That’s why James is in your class. He wants to do stripper nights once a month, and he has visions of spinning elegantly above an adoring crowd.”

Lily laughed. “I can see that. He has good stage presence. He was the only one in class who wasn’t afraid to slam his heels. He made the other girls jump. It’ll take him a while to get to the elegant spinning, though. He’s got teeny little stick arms.” She held up her own arms to demonstrate what Sirius could only call the opposite of stick arms.

Sirius nodded with a rueful look. “You’d be surprised what he can manage when he’s determined, though.”

Lily took a thoughtful bite of her sandwich. “He seems nice. I don’t often date guys, you know.”

Sirius frowned. “Is that going to be a problem? James is pretty femme, but he’s definitely a guy.”

“I don’t mean I’m a lesbian or anything,” Lily corrected hastily. “It’s just hard to find men that aren’t douchebags. Even in the kink and poly scene.”

“Fair enough,” Sirius said, sighing at the truth of this. Every time he heard something like that, he felt even more determined to get the club up and running as soon as possible. He had to admit he found the whole idea a bit intimidating. He couldn’t force people to change, no matter how much he wanted to sometimes. He worried it was unrealistic to expect one club to change an entire community, but it had to start somewhere. “Most of the guys I’ve dated have been douchebags too. James excepted, of course. For what it’s worth, he doesn’t have a douchey bone in his body.”

“Yeah…I could kind of tell,” Lily said, smiling. “I like him. I think he would be fun to date. And top.”

Sirius grinned, relieved. He wasn’t looking forward to the dramatic fit of despair James would throw once he got home if Lily turned out to be unwilling to go on a single date. “He’ll probably cream himself when he hears that. And that is not a joke.”

“Hmm.” Lily paused in the process of picking up her sandwich, staring into space. It wasn’t that hard to guess what she was imagining. After a minute she turned her eyes back on Sirius. “Are you open to telling me about what he likes?”

“You mean, sexually?” Sirius couldn’t help raising his eyebrows, although he liked the directness of her question.

“Yes, but only if you think he wouldn’t mind.”

Sirius laughed. “He would be delighted, trust me. Although it would be a long conversation. He’s into novelty, so we’ve tried almost everything.”

“I’ve got time for a long conversation. Do you?”

“Absolutely.”

It did indeed take a while, but not just because the list of James’ interests was long and esoteric. The more Sirius talked with her, the more he liked her. He didn’t make friends too easily—a bad habit that came from growing up in such a twisted family—but it was impossible not to see Lily as a friend after an absurdly short amount of time. It turned out that they shared many interests other than James. He discovered that she owned the studio where she taught pole classes, so she had a lot of useful knowledge about owning an alternative business in London. They talked about potential events for the club, about renting out space during the day to pro doms like Lily herself, and about which floor arrangements would best suit the many things he and James wanted to do with the space. They even got lost in talking about the deeper philosophical aspects of kink negotiation, and what different kinds of edgeplay implied about the human psyche.

If she had been a guy, Sirius might have asked her out himself. James had very good taste. Lily seemed to be equally interested in James, although without the intense, effervescent excitement that was James’ bread and butter. By the end of the meal, Sirius was sitting back in his chair, completely at ease, thinking about the future. It looked bright.

Lily seemed to be of the same mind because she took one of the more worn paper menus and began writing a note with her number on it for Sirius to give to James when he got home. It was charmingly anachronistic considering Sirius already had her number and could text it to James in an instant. It made him smile.

She slid the menu across the table towards him. Sirius gave it a long look, and gave a long moment of thought to James’ devouring desire for her, and had a fantastic idea.

“I like you, Lily,” he said, making sure not to beat around the bush in case she took his suggestion the wrong way. “I’ll gladly give this to James, but what if, instead, we really have some fun with this?”

“What do you mean?” She had narrowed her eyes, obviously filling in the blanks with all the things he did not want her to think: that they should have a threesome, that he wanted to date her himself, or that they should pull some mean prank on James and laugh at his discomfort.

“It’s nothing like you’re thinking,” Sirius said reassuringly. “I just know James, and I know there’s only one thing he likes more than getting exactly what he wants, and that is getting exactly what he wants…very slowly.”

Her eyebrows went up even farther, so he hastened to explain the rest of his plan. It didn’t take that long, the overall concept being quite simple and easy to set up.

“I wouldn’t do something like that without his consent,” she said disapprovingly once he was done, obviously thinking this was indeed a prank. “I’m not going to pretend I don’t like him.”

“You don’t have to do that at all,” Sirius said. “And don’t worry, he’ll love it. Ask him next week in class if you don’t believe me.”

She pursed her lips, flicking the edge of the menu with her number on it with her thumb. “It does sound like fun, but I have to admit I’m awfully tempted to just take him home tonight and break him into tiny adorable pieces. Your way would take months.”

“No pressure,” Sirius said, hands up. “Neither of you needs my permission to date. That’s not how we roll. I can assure you, he’s easy to break and, well, glorious when it happens. _Or_ …you could sit back and wear him down slowly. Then you would get to watch him crumble one piece at a time.”

Lily bit her lip. “You make a very convincing argument.”

She didn’t seem completely convinced, though, so Sirius decided to put all his cards on the table. He leaned forward, trying to show her how sincere he was. “The thing is…I know he really likes you, and not just as someone to have sex with or be dominated by. Otherwise, he would have just taken you up on your offer for pro services. He’s done things like that before. If you feel the same way as him, this isn’t going to be a one-and-done thing. I think there’s something to be said for savoring the beginning of a relationship, and he has no brakes. If you want to take things slow, you’ll have to be the one slowing things down.”

Lily gave Sirius a long, thoughtful look, and then she smiled. It wasn’t quite the sweet, friendly smile she had been showing him for the last few hours as they chatted. It was something a bit more clever, a bit more powerful. It was the kind of smile that reminded him that this was a woman who had been in the circus, bought a pole dancing studio, and worked as a professional dominatrix.

She stuck out her hand. “Deal.”

+++

I like her. A lot.

_EEEEE REALLY???_

yes

_did she say anything about me??_

no, we talked about call of cthulhu

_SIRIUS_

She’s into you.

_omgomgomgoD_

_give me her number rightnow PLEASE_

You can’t have it. But we have a plan.

_…we…meaning you and her?_

Yep

_oh. my. god. That is SO HOT._


	3. Fucked

“It’s torture!” James groaned. He was lying flat on his back on a yoga mat in the middle of the kitchen, dressed in cream-colored yoga pants with extra wide legs and nothing else. It was late on a Saturday night. James wasn’t even wearing his contacts. He only ever wore his big black glasses when it was just Sirius around. “I love it, but it’s torture.”

“You could always give up,” Sirius suggested. They were only twelve days into the plan Sirius had concocted at Ground with Lily, and he had already heard this complaint from James more than twelve times.

“Did you miss the part where I said I love it?” James asked. He did a couple of crunches and then groaned and lay back down, arms and legs spread wide in defeat.

“Mmhmm.” In truth, most of Sirius’ attention was directed at his phone, where he was scrolling through the website of one of the contractors Lily had recommended for installing the new poles. He had originally planned on putting in just one pole, but they would need two now.

“She’s so cool.” James sighed dreamily. “We talked for _four hours_ after class, and she didn’t try to make me leave at all. She even asked me to walk with her to the tube station after. And you should see her on the pole, Sirius. She’s _divine_.”

Sirius had heard this more than a few times as well. It was getting harder to dredge up enthusiastic responses—not that he wasn’t actually quite happy for James, but it wasn’t physically possible to come up with an infinite number of responses for the same conversational prompts. New relationship energy could be a real bitch when you were on the outside of it.

Oddly enough, for all Lily’s protests that she didn’t date couples, Sirius didn’t feel entirely on the outside. He was, he realized as he tabbed out of his browser yet again to see if Lily had responded in their chat about strip nights at the club, experiencing a fair amount of new relationship energy himself. He and Lily had been texting almost nonstop since the meeting at Ground. They talked about the plan with James, about the renovations for the club, and about a dozen other things. It was driving James nuts, as he wasn't allowed to have her number yet. That was part of the fun of it, but Sirius could already tell that he and Lily would have ended up friends regardless, and hopefully they would stay friends even if she and James didn't work out. She cared about a lot of the same things he did, like sex workers’ rights, transforming the kink scene, and, of course, James. He was grateful to have found her.

The difference was, Sirius wasn’t inclined to spend hours waxing poetically about the flex of her arms. Unlike some people.

“Aren’t you supposed to be doing pushups?” he asked, interrupting the gushy monologue that seemed to be heading in that direction again.

“Uuuugh,” James moaned. He rolled back and forth on the floor like a stuck tortoise. “It’s _hard_.”

“You’re never going to be able to compete if you don’t beef up a bit.”

James groaned an affirmative and succeeded in rolling all the way over. Sirius had a few moments of peace while James did something like one and a half girl-pushups, but then James flopped back down onto his stomach and said, “Siiiiirius.”

“What?” Sirius didn’t even glance up. He didn’t have any new messages from Lily. There were two from his mother, though, probably about which vile, elitist criminals he would have to hobnob with at brunch tomorrow. He scowled and closed his heart up protectively against his instinctual reaction, a familiar and highly unpleasant cocktail of rage, fear, and grief in a liquid base of helplessness. He would look at the messages later.

“Help,” James said.

Sirius sighed and put his phone screen-down on the kitchen table. “Babe, if I could do your pushups for you, you would already be ripped as fuck.”

“You could…motivate me?” James waggled his eyebrows.

Sirius shrugged. “If Lily isn’t already enough motivation, you’re headed down the wrong path.”

“I know, I know. And I do want to. I mean, I want to learn it for itself, not just for her. I want to dance! But it’s so _hard_.”

James stared at the ceiling for a minute and then rolled over and picked up Sirius’ foot, pressing a soft kiss to the instep. Sirius watched with interest, cock already stirring. A good fuck would do a lot to calm down the emotions still ricocheting around inside him.

“You could _make_ me,” James suggested, running his fingernails around the delicate skin of Sirius’ ankle.

“You want me to dom you into it?” Sirius tried not to let his face fall. He hadn’t realized this was still about Lily. It seemed like everything was about her lately. That was par for the course at the beginning of a major relationship. He knew that, and had welcomed it along with the rest of polyamory, but it was still driving him crazy.

“Please!” James sat up so he was in a kneeling position. He wrapped his arms around Sirius’ legs and squeezed tightly. “You can always get me to do things I couldn’t do on my own, and plus you know all about working out!” He released his grip so he could run his hands up the legs of Sirius’ pajama bottoms, fingers dancing suggestively over his calves. “ _Please_. I’ll be totally fucked without your help, and I _have_ to do this. She’s the love of my life!”

His words hit Sirius like a slap, sudden and shockingly painful. He didn’t even stop to think before snapping back, “And what the fuck does that make _me?_ ”

James froze, realizing what he had said, and his eyes went wide. He was still holding Sirius’ legs, and Sirius felt the wave of irritation and betrayal rising higher and higher inside him, even though he knew it was mostly his family, not James, that he was upset with. Five years ago, he would have gone on anyways, and James might have risen to the bait, and they would have fallen apart into a fight that would have lasted hours or days. This time, Sirius held his tongue, and James didn’t say anything either.

For a long moment, they just sat there, not looking at each other, and that was all the time it took nowadays for Sirius to start to regret losing his cool. He knew James hadn’t meant it in that way. He knew there wasn’t really anything to fear. He was just stressed and tired. It was already well past midnight.

James saw the shift in Sirius’ demeanor and climbed into his lap, straddling him, and wrapped his arms around him. Sirius resisted for only a second before surrendering to his warm grasp, burying his face in James’ neck and breathing deeply.

“I’m sorry,” Sirius said. “I’ve been trying so hard not to be a killjoy.”

“Don’t do that,” James said softly, stroking the back of his head. “I always want to know what you’re feeling.”

Sirius sighed, inching James closer on his lap until he could feel the beat of his heart against his chest. “It’s just the same old family stuff. I’m not unhappy overall. I do really like Lily, and I love seeing you so excited. But I guess I have been feeling a little…jealous.”

“Thank you for telling me.” James leaned down to plant a gentle kiss on the shell of his ear, and Sirius took another deep breath. “I’m here, Sirius. I’m not going anywhere.”

Sirius nodded against his neck. “Yeah.”

“Love is infinite—”

“And infinity divided is still infinite,” Sirius finished. “I know.”

“And life is long,” James went on. “I’ll always have time for you. I’ll always _make_ time for you.”

“Thanks, love.” Sirius nodded again. These were all things he knew, things he had known for a long time and never truly doubted, but it still felt good to hear them again.

James gave his shoulders a squeeze and they sat quietly for a while longer. After several long, peaceful minutes, James said thoughtfully, “I know infinite love is a poly cliché, but it does feel true. I love everything about you.”

Touched, Sirius kissed James’ neck and then did what he should have done at the beginning, instead of brushing aside his need for reassurance as weakness or harmless insecurity. “Tell me.” 

“Hmm.” James took his time to collect his thoughts, combing his fingers through Sirius’ hair, which he had unbound from its ponytail. “I love the way you hold me, like you are now. I love the way your body feels.” He leaned down to whisper the next sentence in Sirius’ ear. “I _love_ the way you fuck me.”

Sirius laughed a bit, and James sat up again so he could look at him properly as he continued. “I love sharing this house with you. I love watching you grow stronger and more sure of yourself every year. I love…that way you always bring me my favorite takeout when I’m sick and you know what order without even asking.” He smiled, and Sirius couldn’t help smiling back. “I love how excited you get when you’re figuring out the best way to run the club. I love knowing you’ll always be there for me.” He leaned closer, pressing their cheeks together so gently that Sirius hardly even felt the scratch of his stubble, and Sirius sighed happily at the familiar sensation of James’ glasses pressing against his cheekbone. “I love you.”

Sirius closed his eyes, listening to those words, listening to the sounds of them breathing. The city around them was mostly quiet, and all he could hear was the two of them. The final remnants of tightness that had lingered in his chest lifted away, made weightless and illogical in the face of James’ undeniable devotion. He turned his head and kissed him, gently and without any hurry or final purpose. Being here now was enough.

“I love you too,” he said, once he had drawn back enough to see James’ eyes again.

“I’m so glad.” James gathered Sirius’ hair back up in his hands, replacing the tie. He knew how much Sirius hated to have it down. That look was only for the dreaded Sunday brunches. Sirius always wanted it up in London, so he could show the world the designs James shaved into the buzzed hair at the sides and back each week. They were a gift, talismans of love, serving as a declaration when he was safe in London, and as wards against evil when he wasn’t.

James went on, “And I’m sorry for implying I can only have _one_ love of my life. Definitely not true.”

“It’s all right,” Sirius said, and it really was. At moments like this, his family didn’t even feel real. His fears weren’t real. There was only the flat, and James, and this whole city that, even at its most prejudiced, cared more about him than his family ever had. Here, he could be himself. He could be all right.

It was a lot of feeling, and it wanted an outlet, a way to show James how all right everything was. So he wrapped his hand around the back of James’ neck, digging his nails in just a bit, and said, “I do, in fact, love you way too much to watch you make a fool out of yourself on that stage. So. Here’s the deal.”

James’ breath caught, and Sirius pulled his head back slightly by the hair so he could watch his pupils dilate. “We have eight weeks until the show. I’ll help you plan your workouts if you want, but you have to do them every day. _Every day_. If you manage it every day in a week, your reward for the week will be a kink scene with me, with at least one new kink each time.”

James gasped. “Every week? That’s a lot of new kinks! Are you sure?”

“I’ve got some ideas,” Sirius said confidently.

That was a bit of an exaggeration. James was a hard sub to keep up with, and Sirius’ creative energy had been lagging a bit lately. He was fed up with it. A kick in the arse like this would be good for both of them.

James squirmed in his lap. “I like this. I like this a _lot._ ”

“Mmhmm.” Sirius leaned down to kiss his neck, gently at first, and then with some bite. “So that’s the carrot. Ready for the stick?”

James whimpered. “There’s a stick?”

“Of course, love. I would never take away your stick.” Sirius punctuated this with another bite, tightening his hand around James’ braids.

“I love you _so much_ ,” James groaned.

“The stick is, if you miss any day in a week, or if you cheat or give up for any reason other than illness or injury…no kink. At all. Not even old favorites.”

James jerked back in his arms, looking at him with wide eyes. “You mean—”

“That’s right,” Sirius said, grinning wickedly. “ _Vanilla sex_. The whole week.”

He wasn’t actually sure how that would work in a practical sense, as everything they did, even the things most people would call tame, seemed to have some sort of subtle (or not so subtle) kink overtone to it by now. It made a great stick anyways, as evidenced by the desperate look in James’ eyes.

“We green then?” Sirius asked.

“Yeah,” James breathed. “Supergreen.”

“So get down on the floor and _work._ ” He gave James a push, and he scrambled out of his lap and back onto the yoga mat, into plank position and ready for pushups. “Good. And don’t you ever forget how much I love you.”

Perhaps it was just a release after such an intimate moment, or maybe it was the unexpected contrast with Sirius’ firm tone of voice, but James giggled.

“Excuse me.” Sirius stood up from his chair and grabbed a handful of braids, jerking James’ head up, slipping right into the delicious pretense of the scene as easily as breathing. “Did you just laugh?”

“I-I’m sorry,” James said, keeping his eyes lowered.

“I tell you I love you, and you _laugh?_ ” Sirius punctuated this with another tug, watching with satisfaction as James’ arms started to shake as he held himself up.

“I’m sorry, _sir_ ,” James said, upping his game a little.

“You think loving you is a fucking joke? Look at me! Do I look like I’m joking?” Sirius didn't know exactly where he was going with this, but he could tell from the set of James’ jaw that it was going well.

James bit his lip and glanced up at his face for a split second before fixing his gaze on the ground again. “No, sir.”

Inspiration hit Sirius like a bolt of lightning, shooting through him with a rush of power and a heady promise of more to come. He pulled harder on James’ hair until his knees caved and he was forced up into a kneeling position, head tilted back.

“I said, _look_ ,” Sirius said, voice hard, heart thumping. 

James looked up, and this time Sirius locked his eyes in place with sheer force of will, letting go of his hair. He didn’t need to hang on to keep James looking at him. He even didn’t need to say anything. He just kept his eyes fixed on James’ own, standing up to his full height over him.

He’d made James watch him before—directing gaze was a basic tool of domination—but he didn’t usually look back like this. And he’d never done it with this emotional intent, which was no less vulnerable for himself that it was for James. He ignored the brief discomfort that came whenever two people looked at each other for too long and opened himself right up, focusing on how much he loved James and nothing else. He tapped into that feeling of total security he had felt a few moments ago when James had sat in his lap, putting it plainly on display without ever breaking his dom exterior.

Ever since they had met in school, James had been there for him. Sirius had endured things no one should have had to endure, and James had been his rock throughout it all—a very colorful, bubbly rock, but a rock all the same. James had always been able to see him, even when Sirius had been swimming so deep in his family’s evil that he had felt like his very blood was tainted. James had always had faith in him. James had always wanted him.

He certainly wanted him now. James took in everything Sirius was trying to show him, took it to heart and body, and responded beautifully. Sirius watched, feeling the rush of power as James’ fingers clenched against his thighs. There was sweat glistening on his forehead and his cock was already tenting his yoga pants. Sirius’ breathing was picking up too, as he started to get high on the excitement and satisfaction of being able to do so much just by _looking_.

This was why he loved domming and kink in general so much. There was nothing like it. James liked variety. He liked the tools and the gear, the scene and the sex parties. Sirius didn’t mind any of that. He had got the gear, he had learned the skills, and the two of them would hopefully be taking over the scene once the club opened. But, really, for Sirius, it was all about this, all about the energy and control. It was one of the few things he could do in this world that he was proud of. He was more proud of this than of his ability to shoot a gun, or con his family, or fix a motorbike, or _anything._ He liked the tools and gear, but he didn’t need them. He didn’t even need his cock—or even his _hands._ The day he could no longer send James into subspace just by looking at him would be the day he knew it was over.

Looking into James’ deep brown eyes now, he knew that day would never come. Sirius had fucked a lot of people and had loved more than a few of them. James wasn’t the only person he had experienced a strong connection with, but he and James had _endured_. Relationships came and went, but some things didn’t end, not even when people fell in love with others or lost their job or moved to another city. Some things were forever.

Sirius laid himself bare and let James see the depth of that _forever_ , that infinity. The connection went two ways. James’ eyes stayed locked on Sirius’ own, brimming with devotion. If James was a candle susceptible to melting, as he had said when enthusing about Lily the other day, then devotion was his wax. He had been dipped in the hot liquid of devotion over and over, until he seemed to be made of it and nothing else, with only a thin core of thread in his center that Sirius adored setting aflame.

It was hard to measure time when lost in infinity, so Sirius had no idea how long they stayed like that. Eventually, it was enough.

“Well?” he said at last, voice unintentionally coming out more tender than his usual dominant affect. “Do I look like I’m joking?”

James shook his head, still gazing up at him, obviously entranced.

“I would never joke about loving you,” Sirius said firmly. He took a deep breath. “Now,” he pointed to the floor. “Get going.”

James broke their eye-lock with obvious reluctance to follow the point of Sirius’ finger. He looked at the yoga mat for a moment, breath coming through his parted lips in little rushes that Sirius could almost hear. He looked back up at Sirius, eyes moving with intentional slowness over every part of him.

“Maybe…just this once, I could skip the workout. It’s late, and there’s…” He swallowed. “There’s some other stuff I want to do.”

Sirius raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms, pretending to be unimpressed. “And do you think Lily would accept you giving up like that? Just because you’re jonesing to get fucked?”

James gave him a coy smile. “I think she would, if I told her it was because my cock is so hard that I can’t even _think_ about doing anything else, because my gorgeous husband forced me to kneel on the floor and think about how much he loves me for ten minutes straight, all while making me look right into his beautiful gray eyes.”

It took exceptional self-control, but Sirius managed to keep a straight face, with only a little twisting of his mouth betraying his overwhelming urge to grin like a lovesick puppy.

“Flattery will get you nowhere.” He walked behind James and shoved his arse with his foot, making him fall forward into the plank position again. “Get to work.”

Sirius watched as James started to move, correcting his form periodically, already thinking about all the things he was going to do to him later. Far from being stuck in a rut, he was awash in ideas. It _was_ late, but he didn’t care. Some things were worth staying up for.

James did indeed have little stick arms, and the rest of him was pretty similar. Sirius couldn’t care less, personally, but he would do anything for James, including guiding him in this. Eight weeks was a short timeframe for the kind of strength he was going to need, but it could be done, especially with Sirius’ added guidance.

He watched how James’ body reacted as he guided him through different muscle groups, counting how many sets he could take of each type before he started to shake with fatigue. He had him switch off between strength and cardio exercises, timing how long it took for him to turn red under the dark umber of his skin, how long it took for him to sweat, how long before he started to get dizzy. He made notes on a pad of paper when it became too much to remember, mapping out workouts that would alternate muscle groups so James could do some every day without injuring himself.

This would have to be in addition to work on the pole itself. James, ever ambitious, had bought one to practice with at home when he had signed up for Lily’s class. It was currently set up in the bedroom, and Sirius had enjoyed observing the few simple spins and such that James had already learned in class. He couldn't give James much advice on practicing pole moves or the accompanying floorwork, but he trusted Lily to take care of that.

Sirius stayed close, walking around James in slow circles, squatting down to touch him as often as he could excuse, using his hands and tone of voice ostensibly to direct James’ exercises, but also to make sure he never calmed down enough to drop out of subspace. It was a totally new kind of domination, a bit more clinical than most of the things they did, but it still had all the elements of the practice that Sirius loved, the need for keen observation and attunement being paramount. He also still had to balance pushing the boundaries of what James thought was possible with reason and loving encouragement. He didn’t dare employ humiliation in this context without talking about it first while James was sober, even though that was usually something they both loved. For today, he stuck with praise and frequent hydration.

For all his twigginess, it took quite a while for James to get to the point where they couldn’t continue. By then, he was soaked in sweat, panting unsteadily, hazy with adrenaline, and so fatigued that he couldn’t even sit up.

“We’re done,” Sirius said gently. He leaned down to stroke James’ quivering stomach muscles and to kiss the sweat running down his face. “You did so well, my love. Come on.”

James didn’t say anything, only looking up at him with fuzzy adoration. Sirius smiled back and scooped him up off the floor—being able to carry and manhandle James was his own motivation for working out—and took him to the bedroom. Sirius peeled off James’—now very damp—yoga pants, removed his glasses, and stepped back to admire his languid sprawl, how he stayed just as Sirius had put him. He was gorgeous.

Sirius quickly shucked his own clothing and climbed onto the bed. He straddled James and leaned down, brushing their lips together, teasing himself while he spread lube over James’ cock, coaxing it to hardness. James moaned, eyes closed, but he didn’t move aside from the occasional shudder. He was hardly awake. He was so out of it that Sirius paused to retrieve a golf ball from their bedside cabinet and put it in James’ hand, dangling his wrist over the side of the bed so he would hear it fall if James actually did lose consciousness or was too nonverbal to ask to stop.

Sirius knelt over him again and slowly impaled himself on James’ cock. He didn’t bother prepping himself, preferring to do it the slower, more difficult way, rising up repeatedly to reapply the lube and focusing on relaxing. He took his time, pausing to lick into James’ slack mouth, kissing sweat from his neck, pressing firm touches to his overworked muscles, and reveling in the completeness of the control. James was so exhausted that he couldn't even thrust up to hurry him along. Only the speed of his breaths and the little shivers of yearning in his stomach muscles betrayed him. The whole situation made Sirius feel delightfully desperate, even with no one to dictate the progression of the fucking but himself.

Once he was fully seated, he began to lift himself up and down, leaning down occasionally to pinch James’ nose shut and seal his palm over his mouth, taking away his air. He counted in his head to the rhythm of his hips and brushed his nose against James’ ear, letting him feel his own rapid breathing. He deprived him of oxygen in short intervals just long enough to bring euphoria without undue risk, all the while working the cock inside him until James finally threw his head back, mouth open wide, and came.

Sirius slid his hands down James’ bare chest, groaning with appreciation. He ground down onto him a few more times, taking in the final spasm James’ muscles had been persuaded to endure. He was exquisite.

Now shaking himself, Sirius crawled up the bed and put his cock in James’ mouth, keeping him pinned so he couldn’t do anything but take it. Not that he needed to be forceful—James was clearly blissfully willing to do whatever Sirius wanted—but it was part of the fun.

Even with all the willingness in the world, James bucked under him a little as Sirius pushed the limits of what he could take in yet another way, but his fierce grip on the golf ball never slackened, not even when Sirius’ thrusts increased a moment later and he gasped and came hard far enough down his throat that swallowing was more of a survival skill than a choice. Despite James’ fatigue, his hand stayed clenched tight around the golf ball until it was over and Sirius was clutching the headboard, dizzy with bliss. Only then did James let it fall, and it rolled away across the wood floor.

“All right?” Sirius asked, his response nearly as automatic as the sound the ball made when it hit the floor, even though he hadn’t yet caught his breath.

James nodded and tugged Sirius down for a cuddle. After a moment he managed to speak. “I’m fine. Just…done.”

Sirius smiled and pressed his head to James’ chest. “Don’t worry, love. We’re definitely done. How do you feel?”

“Good,” James mumbled. “Everything hurts.”

Sirius laughed and squeezed him gently. “You’re welcome. I’ll draw you a bath. Just give me a second.”

James sighed happily and draped one trembling arm over Sirius’ shoulders. He winced at the tackiness of the sweat between them. “Ugh. You should have hosed me down first. I think I stank up the bed.”

“Mmm. I couldn't have waited that long, not when you were all limp and shaky…fuck, I had to have you right away.” Even thinking about was stirring up renewed arousal in him. He made himself sit up, stretching. “I’ll change the sheets while you’re soaking.”

James smiled in the way that only someone who had been thoroughly indulged could, and Sirius went to start filling the bath. He added a generous amount of epsom salts and came back to carry James in, because he wasn’t about to give up on spoiling him anytime soon. He helped him wash and then climbed in behind him, letting James snuggle up between his legs.

“Even my cock is sore, you sadist,” James said, groaning playfully. 

“Was it too much?” Sirius asked. He didn't bother to counter the accusation, which was not far from the truth lately anyways.

“No. I really do think it would kill me to do that every day though.”

“Oh, God no.” Sirius shook his head and scooped more warm water over their shoulders. “I’ll make your regular workouts more reasonable, and you’ll be alternating upper body and legs on even-odd days. I’m sorry to say I won’t actually be able to dominate you through each one. I can’t do a scene like that every day, so you’ll have to do most of it on your own. I’ll just be the carrot and stick.”

“I think I can manage that,” James said. “I had no idea I could do as much as I did today.”

Sirius kissed his temple. “You’re stronger than you think, then. And you’re going to get stronger still. Today counts as Sunday’s workout, by the way, seeing as it’s almost dawn. So you have some time to recuperate before Monday.”

It was almost dawn on a Sunday…in just a few hours he would have to get ready and leave for the dreaded Lee family brunch. He tried to squeeze the thought away, not wanting to ruin the post-sex high and the overall perfection of this moment with James, but it crept in anyways.

“Don’t go.” James said quietly. His thoughts had apparently traveled in the same direction.

Sirius bowed his head, pressing his forehead to James’ damp braids. “I have to.”

“No, you _don’t_.” James turned halfway round in the bath to look at Sirius in his earnestness. “Your handler said you can stop anytime.”

“I know.” Sirius couldn’t meet his eyes. He suddenly felt cold and lonely, even immersed in the hot water with James. “But I’m still siphoning off money and gathering useful intel. Maybe someday it will be enough to put them all away, instead of just getting them to frame Regulus for everything. They deserve it.”

Just the thought of it made the coldness transform to hot rage. He had worked so hard, for so long. He had risked everything he loved—including his own sanity—to wiggle himself deeper into the worst of his family’s businesses: human trafficking. It had taken years to collect enough information for his handler at MI6 to agree to prosecute, and somehow it was only Regulus, little Reggie, who had ended up behind bars, even though he had barely been a legal adult at the time. No one else in his family had suffered any consequences at all. They had stayed away from that type of “business” from then on, not wanting to attract more attention when they had other endeavors that were at almost as unsavory and at least as profitable. But there was still no justice.

Compared to despair and helplessness, the anger felt good. Maybe that was why he kept going. It was easier to keep being angry, to keep feeling like he was doing something, even though he had mostly extricated himself from the day-to-day matters of the Lee family.

“They aren’t even letting you handle sensitive information anymore,” James said, following right along with his train of thought. “And we don’t need the money, not even with the club renovations. Even if we did need it, I would rather live on the streets than see you as miserable as they make you every week. You deserve to be _free_ , Sirius.”

James wasn’t exactly an unbiased judge in the matter of what Sirius deserved. Sirius didn’t say anything to argue though. He just held James a little tighter and closed his eyes.

He couldn’t do what James wanted. It wasn’t just a sense of duty or about the money. James had—by Sirius’ very careful design—never been around the Lees. He knew everything about the person Sirius truly was, but he didn’t know anything about the person Sirius became when he went home. At that marble mausoleum he was Alec Lee, a straight and straight-edged businessman who laughed at the suffering of others and used people—used them _up_ —for his own purposes without conscience. He took off his wedding ring, covered his tattoos, and hid the art James created on the back of his head. He never looked twice at an attractive man or gave a thought to the divine transformations a good kink scene could bring to his soul. When he went home, he didn’t _have_ a soul.

That was who he became when he went to his family, and sometimes that persona was so strong that he was afraid of what would happen if he no longer had a place to express it. It was a toxin hidden in his bloodline, a demon. He traveled to the country each week so he could let it out and leave it there, so he could come home to James and all of London a better person, the kind of person he wanted to be. He had to keep going, had to keep purging it until maybe, someday, he would indeed deserve to be free.

“At least stay home today,” James went on. “I can’t stand the thought of you going when you haven’t slept. You’ll drive me crazy worrying.”

Sirius sighed, tempted. One week wouldn’t make much difference, and he _was_ exhausted. The scene had taken a lot out of him. They always did, but it was always worth it.

“Come on, love.” James picked up one of Sirius’ hands and held it tightly between his own, raising it to kiss his fingertips. “We can sleep as long as we want. I’ll make you brunch, and we can fuck some more, and then maybe we can go to the club and do some more work. Thinking about how gross those bathrooms are is keeping me up at night.”

Sirius burst into unexpected laughter at the thought of James tempting him to play hooky with the promise of remodeling what had to be the most disgusting bathroom in all of London. He felt a sudden, overwhelming rush of gratitude. James always knew how to bring him out of even the darkest of moods.

“All right, I’ll stay home. This time.”

James grinned and turned around in his arms to kiss him.

+++

_your husband is one of maybe ten people in this world that is authentically a good person all the way down_

Awww, I love this. And I agree with you. Honestly, parts of my life suck (and used to even more than they do now), and James is my remedy. I adore him.

_that's very romantic._

thank you, romance is unavoidable after growing up with my tongue in his mouth

_oh god don't talk to me about his mouth. I’m going nuts over here. I keep thinking about tying him to one of the poles in the studio and fucking his brains out._

hi this is james on Sirius’ phone I just wanted to say hanging out with you today was so amazing and you can totally do that A N Y T I M E

_James, this is not the deal. If you text me from Sirius’ phone again, the game is off._

sorry, he saw the chat open while I was answering the door. Pizza.

_He has no self control_

nope. not really his thing lol. Don’t worry, you scared him good.

_good_

he wants to know what we are saying

_make him wonder_

I told him we are discussing his punishment

_…okay now I actually want to do that. Can we?_

fuck yes


	4. Complete

“Holy shit.”

“What, what is it?” James asked, leaning in to try to see what Sirius was looking at on his phone. Sirius tilted the screen away.

“I have never wanted you to fuck someone this much before,” Sirius said, looking at the photo Lily had sent him in wonder. “She looks fucking incredible.”

James gasped, nearly knocking his makeup bag off the corner of the tiny men’s room sink. “She sent you a _picture?_ Oh my god, that's so unfair!!”

“You’ll see her soon enough.” Sirius tucked his phone away with a smug smile. “Let’s get you finished. I have to go open the doors soon.”

James nodded and reached into his makeup bag for the eyelash glue. He was decked out to the max, and he looked simply amazing. It had been years since Sirius had seen him with his hair loose like this, and they had spent hours teasing it into a perfect fluffy halo that was more than twice as wide as his head. That and the six-inch gold stripper heels brought him to Sirius’ height, a fact Sirius had taken advantage of in one of the eight kink scenes he had successfully pulled off as rewards for James’ weeks of strength training.

It had all paid off. James had worked hard, even harder than Sirius had expected him to. He had done every single one of the sets Sirius had assigned him, along with many hours of practice on the pole in addition to Lily’s class. He had undergone quite a transformation, especially considering how little time he had had. He had always been thin—a byproduct of a high metabolism and a perpetually excited, over-busy state of being—but now there was definition in his stomach, chest, arms, and shoulders. His legs were probably even stronger than Sirius’ now, as Sirius tended to focus on upper-body and pole dancing was definitely a full-body sport. Sirius had always loved the way James looked, but lately he couldn’t take his eyes off him. That was especially true today, as James was covered from head to toe in fine gold shimmer powder that made his dark brown skin glisten even in the less-than-flattering bathroom lighting. The tiny gold booty shorts were only an afterthought in comparison to all the skin on display.

James carefully applied long gold eyelashes while Sirius leaned against the sink, which was now sturdy enough to support things like leaning. They had worked hard on the club too. This bathroom, for example, was now one of the nicest in London, rather than the most filthy, although it had required tearing out everything to the bare studs and foundation to get rid of the smell. The rest of the club looked even better, and now there were only a few minutes left until opening night officially began.

“Are they all right?” James asked, blinking his eyes to show Sirius the swish of the lashes. “Too much?”

Sirius grinned. “You wouldn’t even ask if you’d seen the picture I just saw.”

“Oh no, is she fancier than me?” James gasped, eyes widening in dismay. “Fuck! What should I do?”

“You don’t need to do anything, babe. You look fucking hot.” Sirius flicked the curve of James’ firm arse that showed below the shorts in demonstration. “Zoe said there’s quite a crowd waiting outside, and they are going to love you.”

James turned halfway as if to scrutinize the arse in question in the mirror—perhaps checking to see if Sirius had dislodged any of his pristine gold coating—and then leaned in close to his reflection, examining his makeup. “Did she put the chairs where I said to? Are the other girls ready? What about the bar?”

The dressing room was currently full of strippers that would make up the majority of the entertainment—and income—for the night once James and Lily were done. They weren’t actually all girls, but the few men and nonbinary dancers they had managed to recruit seemed content to be included in that label. Many of them were from Lily’s network. Sirius didn’t know how they could have managed to find so many without her. She had also lent them her girlfriend, Zoe, to work the ticket booth at the door, and another of her sometimes-lovers was bartending. Zoe might become a permanent hire, but they still had to find a bartender and a couple more bouncers. James and Sirius would be doing it all for now, but that wouldn’t last.

Lily had ended up helping with the club opening in a lot of ways, up to and including installing the new blacklights and building an inventory of safer sex supplies. She and James had been pseudo-platonically dating for the last eight weeks, spending whole afternoons together after pole class, but they still hadn’t exchanged numbers, and Lily had enforced a strict no-touching rule. It was all part of the fun, of course. Theoretically, James had to win tonight’s competition to gain full access, but Sirius was pretty sure he was going to go home without James tonight regardless of who won. Or they might all end up going home together. Either way was fine as far as Sirius was concerned. Their flat had an extra bedroom for a reason.

“Everything is ready, or I wouldn’t have come in here to hang out with you,” Sirius said reassuringly. “Can I do your lips?”

James nodded and handed Sirius the half-dozen tubes and brushes needed to get the look they had practiced earlier this week. Sirius tugged James in front of him, careful not to smear any of his lovely shimmer, and gave James a playful grin as he sharpened the liner pencil, trying to get him to relax.

James hardly seemed to see him. He was looking critically at his reflection in the mirror over Sirius’ shoulder, self-consciously fluffing his hair, which was also dusted with gold.

“I feel like we are forgetting something,” James said fretfully. “I wish the crosses had arrived.”

“We don’t need them until next week. It will be fine.” Their two custom-made St. Andrew’s crosses had been delayed in shipping, but they weren’t about to string anyone up tonight. Tonight the club would be a classic strip joint, breaking them into the scene gently while giving them an opportunity to pass out flyers for the classes, kink parties, and other mixers they had planned. “Stop worrying.”

James winced, acknowledging Sirius’ logic, but the line between his eyebrows didn’t disappear.

Sirius tugged him closer and held him steady with one hand on his jaw. “Come on, love. Close your eyes and just be here for a minute.”

James sighed and closed his eyes, and Sirius smiled at the way the false lashes gave the act extra drama. He raised the dark gold pencil and began carefully defining the edges of James’ full lips, filling in the center so the color would have some staying power. He let silence reign for a few minutes, feeling the anxious puffs of James’ breaths slowing as he calmed down in the stillness.

“You look gorgeous,” Sirius said, speaking slowly so James would absorb it all. “And the club is going to be great.”

He tossed the pencil back into James’ bag and began to brush on the lipstick. He took his time, enjoying the way the brush pushed gently against the soft skin, leaving behind creamy trails of glittering gold.

“Your routine is amazing. You’re as good as any pro I’ve seen, and considering how many youtube videos you’ve put in front of my face during the last few weeks, that is really saying something.”

James’ lips stretched as a smile smoothed out the natural wrinkles, but he didn’t try to talk, obviously not wanting to disturb Sirius’ work. Sirius switched colors, blending a lighter, white-gold into the fullest part of James’ lower lip as a highlight shade.

“Lily is going to love it,” Sirius continued. He finished blending and applied the final layer, a thick gloss, in slow, reverent strokes. He paused to admire the final effect, taking in the symmetry of James’ makeup and the way it accented the familiar, beloved lines of his face. He really was perfect.

“Lily is going to love _you_ ,” Sirius said at last, voice low and sincere. “If she doesn’t already.”

James’ brown eyes fluttered open, large and full of hopeful excitement. “You really think so?”

“Yes,” Sirius said firmly. He took one last moment to admire the shiny swell of James’ lips. He looked just like he did right after having his mouth fucked, only a lot more golden. “Fuck, you look so good right now. I’d take advantage, but I’m not about to mess up all this.” He gestured to the whole of James’ body to indicate that he did indeed want to disrupt the _entire_ look. “So you’ll just have to imagine it.”

James grinned and closed his eyes, parting his lips and taking a shaky breath. “I’m imagining it. Mmmm. It feels nice.”

Sirius laughed and capped the lip gloss, feeling the satisfying swell of affection filling him up, and went to go let in the crowd waiting outside.

+++

For all Sirius’ reassurances, he couldn’t help but feel some of the same anxiety as James about opening night, especially once he gave the all-clear to Zoe and the line of people waiting outside started filing in. Some of them looked like the same crowd that had been here back when it had been a seedy, run-down strip club, and they were already casting uncertain looks at the rest of the customers, who were every shape, size, color, and flavor of queer. Sirius positioned himself by the door where they would all see him as they entered, giving the straights and squares his best menacing expression—which James had reassured him was indeed quite terrifying. He knew many of the other people from meetups and more personal encounters, but he did his best to remain professional. He did pull aside a couple of his more intimidating-looking friends, asking them to keep an eye out and signal him if they saw something amiss. He really needed to hire more bouncers.

The strippers were already milling around, doing the dancer equivalent of Sirius’ menacing look with a different set of tools. It seemed platform heels, flirty smiles, and a clever hustle were just as effective at claiming power and space as Sirius’ biceps and scowl. The straights veered away from the non-female dancers like freedom from the gender binary was contagious, but no one caused any trouble.

Once the backlog of people had settled, Sirius—who would be wearing many hats tonight, one of them being that of the DJ—flipped on his mic. He announced that the first show of the night would be starting shortly and encouraged everyone to gather around the stage with their cash out. Most people here already knew about James and Lily’s show, as it had been the main thrust of the marketing James had done. Between the three of them, they had probably spread the word to every queer, kinky, and poly person in London, but the squares were going to get a real surprise.

Sirius tucked his mic into his back pocket and pulled his laptop out from behind the bar, still keeping an eye on the crowd. He was headed to the side of the stage where they had positioned a leather couch with a Reserved Seating sign when he saw a very welcome face, characterized by kind hazel eyes and a sheet of silky brown hair. It was Gideon, one of Sirius’ oldest acquaintances in the poly scene. They played together once in a while, and the sex was always amazing, but for the most part, they enjoyed a platonic relationship with added cuddles and makeout sessions.

“Gideon!” Sirius called him over and pulled him into a hug. “I was hoping you would come. Come on, you can sit with me. I’ve missed you. I’ve been so busy getting the club ready, I’ve hardly seen anyone but James and Lily.”

Gideon smiled and nodded gratefully, quiet as always. They curled up together on the couch, both of them positioned to watch the rest of the room—Sirius because it was his job, and Gideon because it was his habit as someone who waged a constant battle with social anxiety.

It was people like Gideon who Sirius wanted the club for the most. Without a flagship location, a place for everyone to meet and play safely, the kink scene was unpredictable at best and dangerous at worst. Tall, tattooed, built doms like Sirius himself didn’t often have much trouble, but it wasn’t so easy for someone like Gideon. Gideon was small and submissive both in attitude and in sexual preferences. He also didn’t have a place to bring casual play partners home to. He and his nonbinary partner were parents. It was hard to pull off a full kink scene in the same house as a toddler, so Gideon resorted to playing at the few parties James and Sirius hosted.

Like the best of kinksters, Gideon was capable of expressing his interests and limits when negotiating a scene, but that wasn’t always enough to prevent people from going overboard. Gideon had had some bad experiences at the hands of well-meaning—and not-so-well-meaning—doms who didn’t know what to do with a sub who hardly talked under normal circumstances and went nonverbal at the drop of a hat in a scene.

The club could change all that. Just the thought made Sirius grin and give Gideon an extra squeeze. He and Lily had already set up a full schedule of classes to help educate those who meant well, and for those who didn’t…Sirius couldn’t wait to hire a team of badass bouncers who would have no reservations about kicking them to the curb.

“I’m glad you’re here.” Sirius kissed the edge of Gideon’s shy smile before flipping open his laptop. Both James and Lily were texting him that they were warmed up and ready. He checked that the music and lighting program was ready to go, and then showed it to Gideon. “Can you cue the first few bits of this for me?”

Gideon was a software engineer, and he clicked through the relatively intuitive program with ease, nodding.

“Thanks,” Sirius said. “Be right back. It’s showtime!”

He never would have expected it, considering some of the things he had done in front of a crowd before, but he experienced a brief moment of stage fright right before he climbed the steps up to the stage. He was used to holding a lot of the responsibility for another’s well-being, that being one of the main joys and challenges of power exchange, but this wasn’t just one person. There was a whole _crowd_ of people gathered around the stage, people who either needed this place or needed to be shown that this wasn’t the place for them. With James and Lily backstage and likely to be consumed with their own personal matters tonight, Sirius was responsible for it all. That was a lot of pressure.

Sirius paused at the bottom of the steps, taking a deep breath, facing the stage fright like he would any other pre-scene anxiety. He let himself feel the heaviness of this new responsibility weighing down his shoulders, and made himself revel in it. He wasn’t about to let all these people down, and he wasn’t going to give up on all the things they could accomplish if there was just someone strong enough to claim the responsibility. He had been handed heavier things before, and he had risen up under those burdens. He could do that again. It was a lot, but he was strong. This was just one more opportunity to demonstrate that for himself.

As he climbed the steps, he thought he could feel himself growing taller. His back straightened, his chin lifted, and when he faced the crowd, he smiled.

“Welcome, queers and squares,” he addressed them, and the more interesting portion of the crowd burst into laughter, casting glances at the obviously straight, middle-aged white men who had by now been herded together off to one side. Sirius grinned when he realized it was the side of the stage that James would be dancing on. They were in for a real treat.

It was a bold way to start, but Sirius had no intention of letting the club be overrun with the same crowd that had been happy with the human rights disaster it had been before James had bought it. If there were any straight people here tonight who were so fragile and volatile that they couldn’t handle being called a square or watching a mostly naked man dance in heels, he couldn’t wait to show them the door.

“Welcome to opening night!” he said with enthusiasm that invited a cheer. The crowd obliged him, and once it was quiet again, he continued. “As you hopefully know, my husband and I bought this club with the intention of doing a _lot_ of different things, and this strip night is one of them. Check out our shiny new website for the schedule of kinky classes, bondage nights, mixers, and such that will be keeping us busy the rest of the month. You can also book us for private parties if you see a needy little hole in the calendar that wants for enthusiastic filling. We’ve got all the dungeon equipment you could ever wish for either here or on the way.”

There was some more cheering, and he continued. “But tonight we have something very special for you all…a once-in-a-lifetime show. Our first set of the evening will be a burlesque-style pole show featuring none other than my husband and his pole instructor Lily of Spinhead Studios. I _think_ a few of you are familiar with them.”

As he had expected, a huge portion of the crowd burst into cheers and catcalls. Thanks to James’ prolific social and sex life, Lily’s pole classes, and her dominatrix work, Sirius suspected that they collectively knew nearly _everyone_ in the scene. They were going to make quite the power couple.

“Sounds like introductions are hardly necessary,” Sirius said over the roar of the crowd, “but you’ll have to humor me. I’ve been practicing, and I do love the mic.” He threw in a suggestive little caress of the microphone just for the hell of it and continued, “Besides, however you may know them outside of here, tonight we’ll all be addressing them by their dancer names. I present to you, _The Lion!_ ” He gestured stage right with a grandiose wave of his hand, and James entered right on cue.

James had looked gorgeous even in the bathroom, which, while recently remodeled, was still a bathroom. There was only so much sex appeal one could exude against a backdrop of urinals. On stage, though, on stage he was _glorious_.

Gideon had triggered the lights and music exactly on cue, and James strutted along to the high-energy song like he’d been practicing walking to it for weeks, which he had. The warm yellow stage lights make the shimmer in his mane of gold-dusted hair come alive, to say nothing for the way it highlighted every inch of his newly-muscled form, from heavily-lined eyes to bold heels.

Sirius was still casting his energy out over the crowd—they, not James, were the ones _he_ was scening with—so he couldn’t cheer or stare as he would have liked to, but the audience did it for him. He gave them a moment to take James in and then pulled the mic back to his mouth in a broad gesture that would recapture their attention.

“ _And_ ,” he continued, reminding them all that another dancer was coming. He used his most compelling voice, implying that she was the real star here, and opened his hand to welcome Lily from the other side of the stage. “ _The Phoenix!_ ”

Lily parted the bead curtain in front of the staff area with a graceful hand—she, unlike James, had gotten ready with the other dancers in the dressing room—and climbed the stairs up to the stage with a smile that was both warmly benevolent and fiercely sexual.

She looked, as Sirius had gotten a glimpse of in the photo she had sent, fucking incredible. Like James, she wore classic stripper heels with clear tops, but hers were no modest six inches. Her shoes added nearly ten inches to her height, and the deep red platforms were decorated with glitter and delicately painted feathers in shades of red and gold. The shoes were tall enough that Sirius suspected they were the sort that would have warning labels on the package forbidding the wearer from actually walking in them—let alone _dancing_ in them—but they looked completely natural on her. She walked with perfect coordination, each foot landing exactly on the beat of the sultry instrumental she had picked out for her introduction.

Like James, she was mostly bare, as a lot of skin contact was necessary for pole work. She wore a red silk bikini that was so perfectly fitted that it must have been tailored for her specifically. Her usually bushy orange-red curls were straightened and slicked back into an elegant updo, which was interwoven with long golden feathers to match the phoenix theme. Her makeup was on point, of course, with dramatic winged eyeliner in every shade of red and gold, perfectly crisp glistening red lips, and eyelashes that were not only longer than James’, but also had tiny sparkling gems on the outside ends of the lashes. Sirius had seen most of that in the photo she had sent, although her shoes hadn’t been in shot, but the final touch to her costume was a surprise. She had a _tail._

It was a masterpiece of silk, rhinestones, and feathers, blended like fire and just as full of movement as it glided along with every sway of her hips. It draped against her legs, just narrow enough to show off the curve of the side of her arse and just long enough to brush the floor. It was absolutely beautiful, a work of art in its own right. It was the kind of thing a burlesque dancer would wear, but Sirius had never heard of anyone wearing something like that for pole work, unless she meant to remove it before she got started. It was too long. Surely it would get wrapped around the pole or her limbs and hamper her movement. On stage with her as he was, Sirius was close enough to see that it was sewn onto her bottoms. This would not be a fully nude show, so that tail wasn’t going anywhere. She was going to have to dance with it on. Sirius could only imagine it would be very difficult.

That must be its purpose, he realized. Lily had mentioned that she would do something to help make the competition a bit more fair, as there was no way James would have been able to match her lifetime of training otherwise. Sirius glanced at James to see if he understood the significance of this development, but of course the “Lion” had gone fully incoherent with awe. His eyes were wide, his jaw hung open, and his cocky pose had dissolved into a weak-kneed look more suited to a newborn deer. He wasn’t analyzing anything.

Sirius grinned as Lily strode over, gliding through the enormous roar of cheers and applause until she stood opposite James on Sirius’ other side. Her jeweled eyelashes flashed as she winked at James, who twitched like he had been physically struck.

“So here they are,” Sirius said, managing to draw at least a few of the eyes in the room back to his fully clothed, unglittering self through sheer willpower. “And now that we have something to look at, let me tell you all a little story. A couple of months ago, this guy,” he gestured affectionately at James, who snapped out of his lovesick pose with start, “comes back from spin class absolutely smitten over this amazing woman—a _goddess_ , he tells me. So, of course, I tell him what any loving husband would…to go get fucked.”

The audience roared with laughter at this, looking around appreciatively when the joke was shared among more of them than expected. There was already a wonderful feeling of camaraderie developing in the room. It was enough to make Sirius feel like he was glowing, even in the absence of glittery adornments.

“But a rare bird like a phoenix doesn’t settle for just anyone!” Sirius gave Lily’s shoulders an affectionate squeeze and she preened obligingly for the crowd. “No…she wants a boy that’s willing to work to earn her affection. She wants a boy that can _dance._ ”

He dropped his speed and raised his tone of voice as he said this, inviting a reaction in the same way he would when teasing a lover, and the crowd cheered right on cue.

“So he’s been working, and _we,_ ” he opened his arms to embrace the crowd, enhancing the feeling of oneness in this new group, “are here to judge his efforts. The Phoenix will judge for herself, of course, but I encourage you all to do your best to sway her opinion either for or against our brave Lion. They are each going to give you a one-song show, and then we are going to break it down and let them challenge each other, one ridiculously difficult pole move at a time.” He tapped his foot on the line on the floor marked with glittering gold masking tape that James had ordered online so that the stage would match his costume. It divided the stage in half, serving to separate the tips each dancer would receive. “Put your money where your mouth is, or where your mouth would _like_ to be if you want to think of it that way.” He paused to give them all one last wide, charming, smile. “Let the game begin!”

Speech complete, he bowed for the crowd. To his delight, both James and Lily bowed with him. As he straightened up, he leaned over to give James a kiss on the cheek, shimmer powder be damned. “Knock ‘em dead, babe.”

James straightened his shoulders and grinned, and Sirius turned off his mic, going back down the stairs to the couch at the base of the stage.

Gideon, clearly sensing the moment was nigh, was already giving James a countdown. As Sirius sat down, the first bars of Electric Love began, and James flipped around to begin his routine, legs spread wide and arse tilted towards the audience, hips twitching in time.

“Thank you, Gid, that was perfect,” Sirius said, reclaiming the laptop and letting Gideon snuggle in next to him. Gideon tilted his head up to kiss the side of Sirius’ neck briefly, and then they both turned their attention to the vision of saucy gold glitter currently strutting towards his pole.

Sirius had seen James’ routine before, of course, in all of its stages of development. He had served as a willing and unwilling consultant many times as James debated every move and the transitions between. By now, Sirius could hardly see it as a whole anymore, but tonight, with James in full costume and the lights programmed to complement the music, he could see it as if for the first time, as Lily and the crowd of appreciative onlookers were seeing it.

It was impressive. James had carefully planned the routine to include all of the showiest things he could do well without revealing his lack of overall experience. And there was no doubt he had the attitude for it. Every move, whether a spin, inversion, or slithering floor work, had some lewd or teasing overtone to it. The audience ate it up, especially when he came slinking over to the edge of the stage on his knees during the bridge and writhed on the floor just out of reach, running his hands over his body and making delightfully filthy expressions. Money rained down around him in loving drifts, especially from the rather large knot of people at the front of the crowd, many of whom Sirius recognized as a generous selection of James’ past and current lovers. Sirius knew for a fact that at least some of them had been bribed to further enthusiasm with sexual favors, as James had been on a _lot_ of dates lately. Lily had given him permission to use whatever tactics he could think of to get the audience on his side, as long as he wasn’t actually blowing people on stage, since that would rather fly in the face of the minimal contact rules they had established for stripper nights.

To Sirius’ mixed amusement and concern, James paid equal attention to all the customers around the stage, lovers or no, even going so far as to position his most randy gyrating moves directly in front of the clearly horrified group of straight men. Sirius watched attentively, ready to spring into action, but he wasn’t needed. The straights looked more intimidated by James’ fearless sexuality than anything, and to Sirius’ delight, a large chunk of them conferred quietly with each other and just left the club entirely. Sirius watched with satisfaction as Zoe cheerfully waved goodbye to them from her ticket booth. Surely those would have been the worst of the lot, and they they didn’t look like they would be returning tonight or any night. Good.

The squares that remained were staring at James’ only technically covered junk in the kind of horrified fascination that hinted at closeted attraction. One man was watching with his mouth wide open, bills clutched in his hand, forgotten. James winked at him and licked his lips, and the man jumped and then started tossing money onto the stage like he never wanted to eat or pay rent again.

After the bridge, James returned to the pole, where the majority of his routine took place. He was using every bit of muscle Sirius had dominated into him. Even just climbing the pole had taken him a while to master, and adding spins and inversions had taken even more strength and skill. There were multiple points where his entire weight was supported by the grip of one heeled foot and the skin of one thigh, or the wrap of an arm and a knee, moves as difficult as they were painful. Fortunately, James was more than willing to go through a little—or, as Sirius had repeatedly proven, a lot—of pain for those he loved. He did a decent job tying it all together too, matching the movement to the music and incorporating carefree smiles and lewd looks whenever possible.

Lily watched from her side of the stage. At first she paced back and forth, tail swishing along behind her, but then two of her girlfriends lifted a leather armchair up onto the stage so she could recline in state, legs thrown over one arm. She watched with kind appreciation, cheering along with the crowd when James pulled off a good move, clearly proud of his skill and determination.

Overall, it was well done, especially considering that most strippers didn’t even attempt the kinds of tricks James was doing. Aside from the strippers working tonight and the girls who had been in James’ class—all of whom had been invited, even the vanilla moms who had joined just looking for a saucy exercise class—most of the crowd had never seen a true pole show, just dance sets done by strippers who by necessity focused more on pleasing customers than on elaborate pole stunts. 

The song finished with a bang as James flipped out of his last inversion, slamming his heels on the stage and rising up proudly in front of his pole, breathing hard.

The crowd yelled and hooted, applauding loudly as James bowed repeatedly. Sirius joined them, and James’ eyes flicked over to him briefly before turning back to Lily, obviously trying to gauge her reaction. She was clapping along with the crowd, but there was a challenging look in her eyes that said she knew she could do better.

James didn’t seem phased by this idea, since that went without saying, and only bowed one more time in her direction before ceding the stage to her. He leaned against his pole, chest still heaving from effort.

“I think the Lion made a decent showing, don’t you?” Sirius asked the crowd over the mic, pleased to see that this provoked another small flurry of bills onto James’ half of the stage. “Now, let’s see what the Phoenix has to offer!”

Lily stood up from her regal lounging and moved to the center of the stage, winking again at James as she did so, and Sirius cued the file that controlled her music and lights.

Lily had kept her plans for her routine entirely under wraps. She had even programmed the lights herself once James had shown her how. She had told James to pick a song from a certain band, so Sirius assumed her song would match, but other than that, he had no idea what to expect.

Once he hit the button to set off her program, the stage went dark. The floor lights were also off at the moment, so the only light in the room came from the exit signs and Sirius’ open laptop. He couldn’t see a thing. Sirius panicked for a moment, assuming something had gone wrong, but then a single red spot came on, revealing Lily.

She had used the cover of the programmed darkness to assume a striking position, a full handstand with her legs and heavy heels pointed straight up in the air directly in front of the pole. Her tail draped down her back to pool on the floor, out of the way for now. She held the position, and a moment later, the music started. Her legs began moving to the first few notes: down, up, out, full splits, and so on. Her heels swung around in large arcs, rising from one side of her body to the other, and stretching down to the floor in front of her head. The whole time her arms supported her solidly from below, demonstrating from the first few seconds that she outstripped James in balance, flexibility, and probably strength as well.

Then she leaned her legs backwards to the pole, wrapped her heels around it, and pulled herself upright, a feat of core strength Sirius knew well from doing inverted sit-ups—and he definitely didn’t look beautiful while he did it. Lily did. She was spinning with the pole from the first moment, moving so fluidly through traditional pole moves that Sirius couldn’t tell where one trick ended and the next began. Unlike James, she didn’t need to resort to a fireman’s climb to gain elevation on the pole. She climbed it one trick at a time, with such grace that it seemed almost a coincidence when she ended up at the top, as if she had been propelled upward by the constant beat of her legs spreading, bending, and splitting as if her hips had never heard of limits.

Her style was entirely unique. Her routine definitely had more fluid ballet-like moves and flourishes than James’ down and dirty get-it-grind-it-fuck-it style, but it was nothing like the bizarrely bland pole routines employed by dancers who liked to downplay the roots of the sport, which were solidly planted in the sex industry. That nonsexual branch of pole dance produced some amazing feats of strength and creativity, often taking on a greater variety of themes than just endless variations on Sexy Lady On Pole, but Sirius found the attempt to sterilize a sport historically performed by nearly nude sex workers disturbingly puritanical and only a thin hair away from outright sex-shaming.

Lily, on the other hand, had experience with both aerial gymnastics _and_ full-service sex work. She took from the best of both, bringing a message of welcoming acceptance to everyone in the club while still showing off every inch of her body in overtly sexual tilting of her hips and stroking of her hands. 

She managed the tail surprisingly well. In fact, it seemed to add to the performance without slowing her down at all. It was weighted appropriately to fly outward with the centrifugal force of her spinning instead of drifting inward where it might wrap around the pole and cause trouble. The fiery sweep of it arcing along behind her was stunning to watch. Even with her legs flipping around in all directions, it never got caught on her heels, but Sirius was still hopeful that it would prove awkward once James was free to challenge her to specific moves. She had surely choreographed this routine specifically to accommodate this extra appendage, and Sirius thought he could see how it would get in the way with moves she had not practiced with the tail on.

She paused at the highest point of the pole where the audience could still easily see her, and the lights flared abruptly as the music poured forth the lyric the song had been named for, _God save our young blood._ The warm yellow spot pooled around her upraised hand and made her smile glow with a light Sirius could only call heavenly. He started to listen to the lyrics, and it was only then that it hit him what the song and this whole performance were truly about.

Predictably, James’ song had been about Lily. It was, like him, a popular, high-energy ode to love and sex. Lily’s song was much bigger. It was about James, but it was also about the three of them. It was about the club. It was about the whole community of decent people that hadn’t had a place to belong for far too long. It was a potent wish that seemed to come true more and more with every moment, as Sirius could see by looking around at the crowd gazing up at Lily with open admiration and lust.

Looking at them, it hit Sirius that he had indeed, made it, just like Lily’s song said. This was opening night, and they had an amazing crowd. Everyone was getting along and having a good time. People had picked up flyers from the racks near the door, and they were actually holding onto them. The club was here. It was ready for them. The three of them—because he could not deny that Lily had been nearly as industrious as he and James had been the past few weeks—had built it, and the people had come.

Lily made her way back down to the floor during the bridge, as James had, and writhed through elegant slow motion splits, backbends, and stage-sweeping turns of her legs, lips moving along with a few choice words, _Save the birds, save the bees, I’ll save you in the waves if you swim too deep._ Her hands traveled with slow, decadent pleasure up her bare thighs, beckoning the crowd in, and then her fingers slid along the floor underneath her, gliding through the thick carpet of bills as she rolled up into a perfectly arched backbend. When the chorus returned, she flipped up into a standing position with sudden, explosive energy, drawing impressed noises from the audience and from Sirius himself. Then she was back on the pole, inverting again immediately and somehow managing to inch her way up it while upside-down, anchored with her heels and using a sinuous caterpillar-like motion punctuated by more impressive spinning postures.

Like James, her face was alive and involved throughout the whole performance, connecting with individuals in the crowd with expressions that were flirty, warm and friendly, playful, or downright dirty depending on the music at the moment and the moves they were paired with. She was practiced enough at her routine to be able to do it all without any outside appearance of effort. 

Sirius felt a rush of pride in James, who, it seemed, had gotten really good at choosing people, if this was the kind of person he wanted. With the free, fluid style of polyamory they practiced, it was easy to end up with a few mediocre or downright crummy partners. Lily couldn’t be farther from that. She was kinky, athletic, sex-positive, lively, and kind, and she shared so many interests with James and with Sirius himself that Sirius couldn’t believe neither of them had met her before. She seemed perfectly balanced, both metaphorically and literally.

None of the rules seemed to apply to her, not those of their overly-puritanical and narrow-minded society, not even _gravity_. And she was bringing all of that skill and energy here, to both the stage and to the club as a whole. It was almost as if she was indeed a goddess, as James kept insisting. As she flipped around the pole, hands and heels spread wide and casting energy all around the room, Sirius couldn’t help but feel that she was giving the club her blessing, and that it was as tactile and powerful as anything an actual deity could bestow.

It brought tears to his eyes, to know that he and James weren’t alone in this. Everything was going to be all right. The club would prosper, the people would learn, and love and community would prevail over the dark specters looming in his past and in his heart.

Like the adoring crowd, Sirius spent the rest of the song in a daze, completely drawn in and cheering freely at the many impressive feats of strength and flexibility. As the last few notes of the song finally arrived, Lily lowered herself to the floor in slow motion with arm strength alone, so that her heavily-heeled feet landed as lightly as if she was made of air. Her arms rose above her head in a final pose reminiscent of a gymnast sticking a landing, face shining with the exhilarated expression of someone who had just given one of the best performances of her life and knew it.

The crowd went berserk with applause, Sirius included, and it took him a moment to remember his duties. He glanced over at James, who was leaning heavily on his pole, eyes dewy with emotion. Sirius smiled. James had it bad, and it wasn’t hard to see why.

He waited until James met his eyes, showing he was ready for the next part of the show. Sirius gave him an encouraging smile and called up the music they had chosen for this, a loop with a beat good enough to dance to but not so fancy as to attract attention. He turned his mic back on, intending to announce the start of the dance-off, but Lily was way ahead of him.

“All right, Lion!” she called across the stage, grinning wide with eagerness and adrenaline. “Show me what you got!”

She dove towards the pole, circling it once on her heels before executing a simple fan turn that even Sirius could probably do and landed with her face turned expectantly to James.

He laughed and imitated her, adding an extra arch at the end that transitioned into another move that Sirius had seen before. She repeated the move flawlessly, of course, and then gave him another trick to copy, and so it continued, with each of them slowly ramping up the level of difficulty.

The mood started out light and playful, with both Lily and James sticking to what was clearly the standard pole class repertoire. They cheered each other on good-naturedly, and Sirius added his own commentary from time to time to make sure the audience stayed engaged. The crowd was into it, especially the strippers on duty and the women from Lily’s class, who called out suggestions and challenges to keep the dancers going.

At one point, Lily wolf-whistled in appreciation for James’ salacious imitation of her sinuous twerking maneuver, which flustered him so much he nearly flubbed the rest of the trick.

“Foul!” Sirius laughed into his mic. “Foul! No distractions from the feathered vixen please!”

Lily gestured lewdly at him with her tongue and two fingers and then cried out in playful protest when someone in the crowd tossed a handful of sympathy bills at the base of James’ pole.

As far as that went, they were both amassing quite impressive piles of money, and even from Sirius’ close-up perspective, it wasn’t apparent which dancer was in the lead. Lily was the obvious queen of the club in terms of experience and flexibility, but James was enjoying a clear underdog advantage.

After that, Lily started upping the ante. Sirius could tell from the subtle widening of James’ eyes that the next move she demonstrated was not something he had done before. It was an inverted straddle that had her supporting all of her weight with her arms while her legs spread in perfectly straight lines around the pole in front of her. She lifted her legs so her heels pointed at the ceiling and then closed them with a snap, using the momentum to swing down into another two tricks that were shorter in duration but no less difficult.

James imitated the sequence only with difficulty and challenged her in turn, finally bringing out the sort of moves that were likely to be hindered by her more elaborate costume. She faltered slightly in turn when her tail caught on her ankle at last, the first time she had looked anything less than utterly perfect on the pole.

After that, neither dancer held back. The audience cheered them both on, undaunted by the slip-ups. If anything, they seemed better able to relate to the difficulty of the sport when they could see it being done imperfectly.

It was amazing to see what they were both capable of, but it was a bit hard for Sirius to watch James being put on the spot like that. There were no fall mats below the poles, and Lily was challenging James to tricks he had never attempted before. After weeks of acting as James’ personal trainer, Sirius was well aware of what the limits of James’ body were. He had been dancing for over half an hour and his muscles had to be getting fatigued. That introduced an element of risk into this game that Sirius had not mentally prepared himself to watch. He found himself clutching Gideon’s hand and taking deep breaths, reminding himself that he wasn’t the one calling the shots here. He was just an observer. He had to trust that James knew what he was doing, and that Lily, as an experienced teacher, wouldn’t do anything too dangerous for James to attempt.

Fortunately, Lily seemed to be watching for the same cues that Sirius was. After several more rounds, Sirius saw her cast an evaluative glance at the crowd, most of whom no longer had much money left to throw. She spun casually around the pole a few times, as if thinking, and then climbed up to its zenith, using a quick fireman’s climb that would have looked purely functional performed by anyone else, but of course it was lovely when she did it.

James watched from below, chest heaving and legs trembling from the continuous effort. His precious golden shimmer powder had begun to run down his body in sweaty trails, but Sirius doubted he had noticed. James had been utterly transfixed by Lily for some time now. He swayed in unconscious response to each one of her movements, as if there was an invisible string connecting them. Sirius was too far away to truly see, but he knew from the dreamy, distant look on James’ face that his eyes were dilated, skin warm and receptive.

James had always been able to go deep into that trusting, submissive headspace with Sirius without much effort, but Sirius had never seen him like this with anyone else, not without even being touched. It was a mark of his trust in Lily that he was able to do it now. A long time ago, Sirius might have felt jealous to see James so intimately drawn to another person, but now he just felt honored that James trusted him and their relationship enough that he could do something like this right in front of him without fear, without any need to hide the depth of his feelings. Far from a betrayal, it was something precious, something that made Sirius feel immensely proud of both himself and James, for having come so far and for having found so much love.

Sirius scanned the crowd again, feeling protective of the intense moment unfolding before him, but he needn’t have worried. They were all enthralled, watching the dancers with open admiration and respect, whispering with anticipation as Lily reached the top of the pole and began to spin.

From the moment she began to turn, Sirius could tell that something was different. There was a crispness to her movements, a smug finality to her smile that told Sirius that, whatever was coming, it would be the final move. He adjusted the lights accordingly, giving her a warm red spot and narrowing another light into a golden beam that highlighted James’ lovestruck expression, because that was just as beautiful as anything Lily was about to do, and the crowd should see it.

Spinning on a pole, Sirius had learned, was more challenging than the spins ballet dancers or ice skaters performed. Unlike in those disciplines, a pole dancer had no chance of gazing at a fixed point to minimize dizziness. This made it all the more impressive when Lily continued to turn, speed increasing until she was nearly a blur, tail flying out behind her in a frantic sweep of fiery color. Sirius watched with his mouth open, unable to fathom what kind of trick she could perform with so much momentum pulling on her. He glanced briefly at James, who had his hands clutched tight over his heart, as if he could hardly contain whatever feelings were swirling around inside him. Sirius followed the line of James’ gaze back up to Lily just in time to see her do the unthinkable.

She let go.

Sirius nearly leapt out of his seat in shock. The audience gave a collective gasp as Lily left her pole behind and launched herself into the air. For one miraculous, eternal moment, she flew through the open air, as if she had truly transformed into the mythical phoenix her costume represented, and then she reached out with both hands and caught herself neatly, on _James’_ pole.

It should have been impossible. The two poles had been installed meters away from each other so that enthusiastic dancers performing in tandem wouldn’t accidentally give each other concussions. Not only that, Lily had been _spinning_ when she had let go, and Sirius couldn’t even fathom how she had been able to estimate the proper trajectory that would lead her to James’ pole instead of to the deadly fall that would have resulted had she flown in any other direction.

It _was_ impossible, and yet, she did it. She didn't even falter or hesitate. Her hands caught the pole with confidence and strength. She let her body swing around, heels flying out to slow her momentum. She glanced down at James, who was standing directly below her with his mouth open in utter disbelief, and then let go again, this time in a more traditional drop as she slid down the pole with her heels pointed directly at his golden-maned head.

The way James moved in response was so fluid it looked like they had practiced it. James dropped to his knees at exactly the same speed as she dropped down the pole, and with just as much confidence and experience. She landed standing over him, chest heaving with the force of her breath, looking down at James’ kneeling form with an open, powerful lust that Sirius could relate to very well.

“I…surrender.” James’ voice was low and desperate, and his eyes, which were locked on Lily’s face, as they had been for the last hour, carried so much desire that Sirius could feel the palpable waves of it even from his seat offstage. “I’ll never be able to beat you. I-I don’t want to.”

The last part was nearly a whisper, but the crowd had already gone so quiet that they surely heard every word, just as Sirius did. James was about to say something else—he had to be only a hair’s breadth away from begging for absolution—but Lily didn’t give him a chance. She lifted one leg and planted her heel in the center of James’ chest, pushing him down onto his back with slow but unrelenting pressure.

James went like his body was clay pulled from the earth for the sole purpose of being molded into shape by her, easing back onto the money-strewn floor. Her shining red heel pursued him, pressing into his sternum and pinning him as she leaned forward.

From his up-close perspective, Sirius might have been one of only a few people in the room that could see the rapid, desire-driven rise and fall of James’ chest stop under the pressure of Lily’s weight. Sirius sucked in his own breath, instantly worried.

He and Lily had had extensive conversations about James’ many kinks and necessary limits—he had even shared specifics of the breathplay they had done—but he hadn’t expected Lily to jump straight into one of the edgiest kinks out there. Oxygen deprivation was decadent and one of James’ favorites, but no one could call it safe, and Sirius was positive that this wasn’t something James and Lily had planned out beforehand. He definitely would have heard—in gushy, anticipatory detail—if Lily had cleared something like this with James ahead of time. This also wasn't a breathplay method that Sirius had ever, or would ever, use. James was too small compared to him, and it would be too easy to crush him. It was too much risk when they could achieve the same effect in other ways. Lily was much smaller than Sirius, but watching this happen still made him want to wring his hands.

Normally, Sirius stayed out of James’ scenes unless explicitly invited in, and he wouldn’t dream of interrupting unless he saw something that was a clear violation of consent, but kink was full of gray areas. This was risky and not pre-negotiated, _and_ it was therefore setting a bad example for the future customers gathered around the stage, although most of them likely had no idea what was going on. Sirius was sorely tempted to step in, if only to publicly confirm that James was okay with it.

Under the circumstances, though, Sirius knew interrupting was a foolish, cowardly thing to do. It was abundantly clear from the relaxed drape of James’ arms above his head and the ravenously adoring expression on his face, that he was _absolutely_ okay with this. The sudden extra-fullness of his tiny golden shorts was a bit of a clue too.

Sirius was still clenching the arm of the couch tightly, torn by indecision, when Lily started to move. Without letting up on the pressure on James’ chest one bit, she pulled a small, folded-up piece of paper out of her red silk top and reached down to touch it to the vulnerable hollow of his neck. James shivered noticeably but stayed pliant and willing on the floor, even as she started to stroke it down his chest, pressing hard enough with the pointed edge of the folded paper to leave stark white lines on his dark skin. She traced around the outline of her shoe and then detoured to pass the point of the paper right over James’ gold-dusted nipple. James cried out, expelling what might have been the last of his air, and jerked all over from the harsh bite of the paper. Lily smiled with almighty predatory energy and continued down, dragging the paper down his quivering stomach until she reached the waistline of his shorts. She tucked the paper inside, right near the bulge that had to be the head of his cock.

“Do you know what that is?” Lily asked in a low, smooth voice so saturated with confidence that it made Sirius want to take notes for his own reference.

James shook his head. He looked far less relaxed now. His gold-tipped fingers were clenching against the stage above his head. His legs were twisting tight against each other, heels shifting in the carpet of money. He still wasn’t trying to push Lily off, though, as he surely could have managed. Sirius recognized the trembling tension in his limbs very well. James was struggling with all his might _not_ to struggle. He had to know that if he showed even the tiniest sign of unwillingness, Lily would stop—or Sirius would make her—and that was clearly the last thing he wanted.

Sirius still desperately wanted a check-in, but he recognized that this would be entirely for his own comfort. It wasn’t something that would benefit either of the people on stage, and he wasn’t about to be that selfish when James needed his support. He would just have to trust in Lily’s skill and James’ choices. This wasn’t his kink scene, and he had decided long ago that he wouldn’t ever try to control James’ relationships with others for his own comfort. Anxiety and jealousy were instincts that would quickly prove toxic in this life they had chosen. He couldn’t let himself hold onto them. He had to let go.

Submission in any form was not something that came naturally to Sirius, but he did it anyways. He uncurled his hands from their death grip on the couch and consciously relaxed the rest of his body as he released his grip on the anxiety that had tied itself around his heart. He took it a step further and let himself look on the scene anew, without the overshadowing fear, and let himself appreciate it. James was beautiful, and he clearly couldn’t be any happier than he was at this moment, fixed firmly under the gaze of his newest obsession.

Sirius’ own, internal surrender was reflected in the scene in front of him as Lily smiled, true warmth showing in every domineering line of her body and curve of her face, and said, “ _That_ …is my number.”

Then, right before the point when Sirius himself would have let James take a breath, she released him, shifting her stance so she was standing fully again, and James inhaled with a divine gasp. His whole body arched off the floor, as if the sudden return of breath called on every muscle in his body.

It might not have been apparent to the crowd, but Sirius knew James’ body language better than he knew his own. He knew that expression of wide-eyed, starry wonder. James was coming.

Sirius grinned, glancing up at Lily’s face. He recognized what she was feeling too, a satisfying and exhilarating rush of power, which was supported by a foundation of admiration and respect that was, quite simply, off the charts compared to everyday human interactions.

As always, seeing someone else enjoy James that way filled Sirius with a rush of exciting ideas and a feeling of contentment tied to the knowledge they were all exactly where they should be. They were all getting the absolute most out of their lives. He wouldn’t trade that feeling or this lifestyle for anything. Monogamy might be easier, but this was worth it. It always was.

Lily stood over James a moment more, watching him come down, and then she turned with a toss of her tail and strode off the stage, exiting as dramatically as she had come in. The audience was going nuts, tossing more bills onto the stage and over James’ body. One drifted down to land on his face, and Sirius saw him blow it off with a dreamy smile.

Eventually, Sirius remembered that he was the cog around which the wheels of the club were turning tonight. He queued a few Goldfrapp songs and introduced the crowd to Honey, the next dancer on the schedule. He flipped on his mic to remind the crowd that she was available for private dances, as were all the strippers now that James and Lily had finished taking over the club, and went to scrape his husband off the stage.

James was still laid out flat on his back, looking utterly at peace with the world and unlikely to get up on his own anytime soon. His goofy grin broadened when he saw Sirius leaning down over him.

“Wow,” James said. His usual dramatic eloquence had obviously not yet returned. There was a perfect shoe print right in the center of his chest, a dark red mark that Sirius suspected would always be there, at least in the metaphorical sense.

“Wow is right.” Sirius chuckled and scooped him up, enjoying the way James’ heels made his legs drape down more heavily than usual. “That was fantastic, babe.”

“Fantastic,” James repeated with hazy delight.

Sirius shook his head, grinning, and carried James to the hall that led to the staff area. As he was opening the door to the office, Lily emerged from the dressing room. She had taken off her heels, so she was back to being two-thirds of Sirius’ height. Her eyes lit up when she saw James.

“Is that for me?” she asked with distinct hunger in her voice.

“Absolutely,” Sirius said. He started to walk into the office, thinking that the comfortable couch they had put in there would be the best place for…whatever was coming next. To his shock, though, Lily stepped in front of him and plucked James out his arms, hefting him with just as much ease as Sirius himself.

After everything he had seen her do tonight, it shouldn’t have surprised him. He had seen many times how she could support her own weight in open air with just the strength of her arms, but James definitely weighed more than she did.

He was making a mental note to ask her later if she was interested in working out together, when James seemed to realize what had just happened. He threw his arms around her neck, pulling himself upright, and without further ado, kissed her right on the mouth.

It was clearly a good kiss, and Sirius smiled to see the ludicrous mess of red and gold lipstick that was shortly smeared over both their faces. He stayed just long enough to reassure himself that Lily seemed to understand the gentle touch James always needed after a scene, and then turned to leave.

“Have fun, loves,” he called over his shoulder. “Please, feel free to do things I wouldn’t do.”

With that, he went back out into the club, feeling invigorated and completely ready for the complex web of responsibilities it had added to his life. There were pamphlets to hand out, queers to network with and talk up, lights and music to cue, mics to man, and squares to keep his eye on—and that was just what he was in charge of tonight. Tomorrow, he and Lily and James would work on scheduling events for the rest of the summer. There would be people to hire, workshops to teach, and payroll to set up.

It was a lot, but Sirius wasn’t worried anymore. He had two gems of people at his side and a whole community at his back. He stepped back through the beaded curtain with the absolute, unshakeable certainty that they could handle it. His history, this lifestyle, and the new challenges of the club guaranteed that it wouldn’t be easy, but he had never been very interested in easy. He was more interested in a life that was full of...life, and that was exactly what this new future would bring.

+++

I think I’m in love with you

_James. Put your phone down and get back in here_

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> There is a wolfstar sequel to this story with all the same happy poly goodness: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15119648
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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